NEARLY £3m is being spent on emergency repairs to protect the region against flooding.

The Environment Agency is undertaking £2.8m worth of repairs to flood defences in the North-East, to combat the havoc caused by the wettest autumn since records began.

In West Auckland, County Durham, £60,000 has been spent on creating a clay bank and in South Church the agency has been working with Durham County Council and Wear Valley District Council on temporary works to improve the defences.

Both communities were flooded last the summer and were in danger of being under water again during the heavy rainfall this autumn.

At Corbridge in Northumberland, £40,000 was spent adding 800 tonnes of stone to the Devil's Water river bank, which had been washed away by the heavy rainfall. The river bank forms a strategic part of flood defences for the area.

In Ponteland, an access ramp in Safeway's car park was raised at a cost of £9,000 and a £25,000 clay extension to the existing flood bank is due for completion.